This invention relates to a stand for supporting pictures on a vertical display surface such as a wall. More particularly, this invention relates to a stand that displays a picture in a substantially flat, upright orientation against a wall without having to attach any picture hangers or similar fasteners to the wall.
Pictures are often hung on walls using nails or picture hangers. Conventional picture hangers comprise a bracket having an upwardly facing hook with the bracket being nailed to the wall. Whether a picture hanger or a simple nail is used as the support from which the picture is hung, a nail has to be pounded into the wall in either case. This causes a hole in the wall which must later be repaired and repainted if the picture is subsequently removed.
In some settings, such as offices, the walls or partitions forming the office cubicles are not even made of a material which is amendable to having anything nailed into it. Many such office cubicle walls comprise cloth covered steel walls. Trying to pound a nail into such walls is difficult if not impossible to accomplish. In addition, the holes made by nails in such walls are more difficult to repair than holes in wood or sheetrock walls. For example, pounding a nail into the cloth covered walls of a modern office cubicle rips or tears the cloth, rendering repair quite difficult.
As a result of damage to walls which result when nails are pounded into such walls for the support of pictures, there are many locations where hanging pictures from walls using conventional nails or picture hangers is prohibited. For example, many colleges prohibit students from hanging pictures from the walls of their dorm rooms because of the damage caused by the puncture holes to the walls. Similarly, many places of business prohibit hanging pictures from the cloth covered walls of office cubicles. Accordingly, the occupants of these venues are deprived of the pleasure of looking at pictures displayed on a wall.
It is possible to display pictures in other ways. For example, the picture can often be displayed on top of one""s desk using the fold-out brace often built as part of the picture frame. Alternatively, some external braces for picture frames are sold separately from the frame to be usable with any picture. One such separate brace is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,990,670 to Frechtman.
In addition to braces attached to pictures, many easels are known for displaying a picture. Such easels have various combinations of legs which allow the easels to be self-supporting on a horizontal surface. In addition, the easels have a ledge or the like on which the picture rests for display. The picture when displayed on an easel is usually displayed at an incline to the vertical, namely the picture is not displayed vertically upright but is most often tilted back as it extends upwardly.
The above-described picture braces and picture supporting easels are effective in supporting pictures without hanging them on a wall, thus avoiding the use of nail type picture hangers. However, such picture braces and easels have various disadvantages of their own. For one thing, they tend to require considerable space on a desk or floor. More importantly, they display the picture on top of the desk at an elevation that is usually below eye level and with the picture being in an inclined, rather than vertical, orientation. Thus, they simply do not take the place of something like a picture hanger which displays a picture in a flat, upright orientation against a wall at some selected elevation above the top of a desk or other horizontal support surface.
It is one aspect of this invention to provide a picture stand for supporting a picture. The picture stand has a lower portion that rests on a horizontal support surface and an upper portion that engages against a vertical display surface. The upper portion of the picture stand extends generally vertically relative to the vertical display surface so that a picture can be suspended or hung on the upper portion of the picture stand and when so suspended or hung will be displayed in an upright vertical orientation.
It is another aspect of this invention to provide a picture stand for displaying a picture in a flat, upright orientation against a vertical display surface and above a horizontal support surface. The picture stand has an upper portion and a lower portion which are configured relative to one another to permit at least some of the upper portion to lean against and engage the vertical display surface when the lower portion engages against the horizontal support surface. The upper portion of the picture stand is configured to suspend or hang the picture therefrom in an upright orientation.
Yet another aspect of this invention is to provide a picture stand for displaying a picture in a flat, upright orientation. The picture stand has edge contact with a horizontal support surface along a line of contact. The picture stand has a center of mass located closer to a vertical display surface than the distance between the line of contact and the vertical display surface such that the picture stand is supported in an upright orientation on the horizontal support surface only by leaning into contact with the vertical display surface. A hook is provided on the picture stand for suspending or hanging a picture therefrom, those portions of the picture stand beneath the hook being arranged to allow the picture to hang vertically in an upright orientation.
A final aspect of this invention is to provide a plurality of picture stands for displaying a plurality of pictures in flat, upright orientations against a vertical display surface and above a horizontal support surface. Each picture stand has a lower portion that rests on a horizontal support surface and an upper portion that extends generally vertically relative to the vertical display surface to suspend or hang a picture from the upper portion in a flat, upright orientation. The upper portions of different picture stands have different heights to allow the pictures to be displayed at different heights above the horizontal support surface.